Burton 2024

The annual 7mm Narrow Gauge Association AGM & Exhibition is probably my favourite model railway event of the year. The place is full of my favourite branch of the hobby, NG7, and only five miles from home. Have to admit that it’s even more enjoyable nowadays that I’m not organising the show! It’s a good day to catch up with friends in the Association, some I’ve known for many years. 

Had an excellent day with ‘Wheal Ponder’, the layout worked very nicely all day and the Fletcher Jennings trio ran faultlessly. Though there might have to be a bit of bush whacking done to accommodate visiting locos more easily. Thanks to Chris and Simon for their help operating and to Mike for help getting the layout out of the attic on Friday. The layout was very well received and I’ve got a couple of invites to take it out again. Thank you to everyone who stopped by the layout for a chat. 

All set up, breakfast consumed, there was time for a look round and to spend some money before opening.

During the show I entertained a couple of guests on the layout. 

First up, Graham at Iconic Rail brought over his exquisite looking test build Corris Falcon to pair with my carriages built from his kits. 

Graham really has caught the look of the prototype superbly. Though it did look a bit dwarfed by the Talyllyn height carriages, much as the prototype would’ve done in the early days on the Talyllyn. 

If I were modelling the Corris I would get one in an instant. However, with my taller carriages and larger wagons, my mind is still pondering how I might make one look a bit more in keeping with the rest of my layout. There are some prototypes of other locos built by Hughes in Martin Fuller’s Talyllyn loco books to give me food for thought. 

It was good to meet up with Gary Boyd-Hope, now working for Bachmann and heavily involved in the NG7 project. As much as I was keen to see the production examples of their Quarry Hunslets for the first time, it was equally good to catch up with Gary. We worked out that it’s about forty years since we first at a Talyllyn RPS East Midlands Model Railway event. 

I’ve got a Penrhyn condition Margaret on order, and had been thinking that it would be quite small so more of a brickworks loco on ‘Wheal Ponder’. But then Gary brought over ‘Una’ for a run on the layout and I was immediately struck by their size. Margaret will be big enough to haul the granite and clay trains. Also, the cabbed version is pretty much spot on size wise with the Corris carriages. 

This leaves me with the dilemma of whether I can justify a second cabbed one. Something I wasn’t intending to get! I’d thought that the ‘Una’ green had looked a little dull in the photos that had appeared online, but the green on the actual model when seen for real looked a far more vibrant colour. 

Decisions, decisions. With the amount of green on my layout, an ‘Una’ could be a bit camouflaged and get a bit lost on ‘Wheal Ponder’. But then, there is a blue one…

Didn’t manage to take photos of all the layouts, but did take a few in the chances I got to escape the layout. 

My guest operator made an appearance. 

However, she was much more impressed by the Mallard and Flying Scotsman on ‘Roundhay Roundhay’ next door!

She was also impressed by the real water and the bears on ‘Karolina Falls’. ‘Karolina Falls’ is a layout I’ve seen before, but packed full of detail there is always something to catch the eye. Plus, it packs a continuous run in a compact footprint on which larger stock runs whilst also giving a feel of spaciousness . Food for thought when considering how I might make use of Lionheart L&B stock. 

Elsewhere, ‘Gants Hill’ was innovative and was a deserved winner of best in show. 

This neat freelance mainline loco caught my eye on ‘Little Bognor’.

The layout that particularly impressed was ‘Bunkers Hill’, the circular double sided plan in a compact space is something that NG7-9 allows.  the well finished Rustons and the cameo scenes like the ice cream van and the Blockpost cameo caught my eye. 

In the competitions, two new Shields were awarded, in memory of our late friends Tim Allsopp and Neil Blair and sponsored by the Trent Valley Area Group. The Shields are most impressive and our thanks go to Association Chairman Adrian Gray for sourcing such excellent trophies. It was pleasing that the Tim Allsopp Shield attracted the most outlandish freelance design in the competitions, most fitting. 

The competitions could’ve done with a few more entries. Next year, when they’re not required to run on my layout, I hope to enter some stock into the competitions. 

And finally, having set up in the rain. Just after the AGM finished, the sun came out and lit up ‘Wheal Ponder’ nicely.